AUGUST MONTHLY ROUNDUP

From Mimi’s notepad 8.31.2026

2000!!

We did it — we surpassed the 2000 mark! In just under 2 years, we managed to place more than 2000 books from The Little Jesus Chronicles® in homes of little kids and big kids around the world.

We are also currently at the same place here at August 31, 2026, in yearly placements as we were at December 31, 2025. That’s right! We’ve done as well this year at this point in time than we did in all of 2025.

What’s next?

We continue to work on the relaunch of sorts with the reading metrics and the registered trademarks on our first 8 books.

We are on the road now and will be on the road twice more by the time you get the September Monthly Roundup. It’s a lot for sure. I’m so thankful for Jill and Steve for helping with this enormous project-turned-family biz.

Continue reading to get all the details!

On the Road Again!

Wichita, Kansas

Our biggest event so far was held earlier in the month when we hosted a book booth at the Midwest Conference for Catholic Families. We aren’t sure how many people we met but it’s between 4000 and 5000! It was electric! As mentioned in our intro, we placed loads of books into new homes.

Here’s a quick peak at Wichita. By quick, I mean really quick! I can’t figure out how to slow down the template! So watch it a couple of times to get the goodies. I especially loved seeing Father Donald Rank bend his knees to be eye-level with Olivia (and me LOL) as he talked to her about the books.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

We clocked state number 7 when we travelled to Michigan for the National Convention of the Conference of Catholic Women this month. This group is the parent organization of local DCCWs (Diocese Council of Catholic Women). We have attended two local DCCW events in the last year with the first in Austin and the second in Cape Girardeau. While we knew in advance this national gathering would involve a smaller group — just under 500 — we continue to feel that national events are helpful for us to plant seeds in more states. Check out this fun reel.

So where are we headed next?

Tulsa, Oklahoma

The Diocese of Tulsa is hosting their annual Tulsa Catholic Women’s Conference on September 18 and 19. We attended their event last year and believed it to be a good fit for us. It’s where we learned about the Wichita conference and met many people who have helped us along the way. Luckily it’s close enough to home to require less road travel. It’s not too late to register to attend. Click here — and then come see if you do! And we will also be scheduling a handful of private showings Friday afternoon and evening.

Little Rock, Arkansas

We will be presenting our books at the 89th Annual Arkansas Catholic Schools Professional Development day hosted by the Diocese of Little Rock on September 25. This one makes me giddy as this is my home diocese where I attended Catholic schools myself. It was during 5th grade at Christ the King (Fort Smith) when my teacher Mrs. Sigmund and Principal Sister Gervase encouraged me to be a writer. I didn’t realize it would be 60 years before I really paid attention!

As always, while these events aren’t usually open to the public, we’re happy to schedule times to visit with locals in the areas where our book tour takes us.

Pipeline Update

Legal Revisions

We’ve got quite a collection of storybooks that have been assessed and certified! Only 1 of the 8 (Cousin Campout) was above 2nd grade landing at Grade 3. What does this mean? It means the words and sentence structure would be hard for those with reading ability lower than Grade 2. We know, however, that the intrigue level with our stories is from the very young who listen to stories especially at bedtime to the super seniors. As we like to say, we are building the kingdom one kid at a time — be that a 4 year old, 40 year old, or 94 year old.

Book 9: Title Reveal

Drumroll, please! We have an official title! Little Jesus and the Buzz About Bullies. We are super close to having this book released! We applied for cataloging with the US Library of Congress, one of the many steps we take with each book to ensure it qualifies to be offered at public libraries. We are also awaiting MetaMetrics assessment though we feel it is a solid Grade 2 book. If all goes our way, we should be able to release this book before the end of September!

Spanish Updates

Our 8 Spanish-language books have moved into the MetaMetrics category for assessing reading grade level. We can’t just presume it will be the same as English though we don’t expect it to be much different. This is yet another step (and expense) in the journey to mainstream marketing. When that data is returned, we will shift for a bit of time into updating our Spanish-language books with the the legal things like trademark logo and Lexile scores.

Little Jesus and Friends: Activity Book 3

We are scheduled for production of this book September - October with a planned availability by November 15. We really hope to have it out by Christmas so that it can be purchased at the same time as stories 7, 8 and 9 since they go together.

Holiday season is just around the corner. Please help spread the word that our books are perhaps the best Christmas gift ever! And if ordered in time, we can personalize them with an author’s signature. Customization with a personal greeting is not available through any other online shop other than our own. Orders must be placed by November 30 to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.

And with that, we turn to the next calendar page. Hello, September! We look forward to the cooler days of autumn but not so much so that we don’t enjoy these final dog days of summer!

May you be blessed and kept safe -